Current machine tooling systems may use laser tracking systems in conjunction with retroreflectors to precisely determine the position of a moveable machine or component during fabrication or tooling processes, including calibration thereof. To avoid losing contact with the laser beam emitted by a laser tracking system during movement of the machine tool, improved retroreflectors and steerable retroreflective systems may be used to increase the angle of acceptance of the retroreflector so that the retroreflector remains in constant contact with the laser beam. However, a retroreflector may still lose contact with a laser beam in certain circumstances in which movement of a machine tool causes a steerable retroreflective system and/or laser tracking system to surpass the axis velocities of the respective systems. Existing solutions require a machine tool operator to manually observe the position and velocity of the retroreflector and use a feedrate override on the machine tool controller to avoid laser beam breaks, which creates error due to human-machine interaction, increases labor need, and prolongs machine tool measurement times. Thus, there is a need for an improved system and method for maintaining optical contact between a retroreflective system and the light source during fabrication or tooling processes.